Revenue mystery, page-71

The Kwinana Desalination Plant supplies 45 billion litres of freshwater per year to Perth.  It consumes approximately 180 GWh of electricity per year.

It is located about 8 kilometres from Garden Island, separated by Cockburn Sound.

The Garden Island Microgrid Project GIMP will be a hybrid wave and solar micro grid designed to give Australia's biggest naval base energy and freshwater security.

The desalination plant and the defence facility would rank equally in national importance I would think.

That being the case, would it not be in the nation's interest to provide energy security to both facilities from the same source, located in the same area?

Being located so close to each other, makes it possible that the hybrid micro grid being built for the naval base, could one day be expanded to service the desalination plant as well.

Currently the Emu Downs Wind Farm (at Cervantes 200 km north of Perth), feeds electricity into the grid to offset the power used by the desalination plant.  While it offsets the power, it can not give the plant energy security.

Increasing the size of GIMP so that it could provide adequate power and backup for the desalination plant to operate independently of the grid (when required), should be something the federal government and the WA government might want to consider.

https://www.watercorporation.com.au...esalination/perth-seawater-desalination-plant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perth_Seawater_Desalination_Plant

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20130827/pdf/42hy39cw5xssvx.pdf